Lecture 3: Elements to the Essay and informing our practice

This lecture, was unfortunately cut short due to technical difficulties when the sound wouldn’t work, followed by the screens not working. But Collin did deliver an interesting talk with alot of encouragement for us to improve our practice and start to make links between our work and the outside world.

Collin explained the important elements to our essay:

Research ( this should be the first and most important part of the essay experience, because it informs our opinions and provides us with the knowledge and understanding of our chosen subject from a wide range of sources)

Planning ( i’m a big believer in planning, i like to ensure i use the P.E.E method for each paragraph, point—> evidence—> explanation, i like to have my points planned out in order before i begin writing a draft)

Writing ( the most scary bit of the essay in my opinion! i most worry here about waffling too much and not sticking to the point in order to achieve the correct word count, so i will ensure i book tutorials with Mo so she can point out where i am waffling)

Inform your FMP, this essay should inform our FMP either completely or indirectly, i would prefer it to directly relate because it means my research will be far more useful but i dont intend to limit myself with one idea just yet, because on the journey of research i may find other routes of interest and inspiration)

Writing needs to be both academic AND informed. So referenced well, correct grammar, high standard of vocabulary but should be well researched and full of relevant information too.

This essay is intended to be more routed within our practice than the previous essays who were related mainly to art and design as a subject not a career. It focus’s on situating my practice into methodological, historical and intellectual contests and will act as an in depth research essay to inform my final major project.

Collin mentioned something interesting about creating a dynamic between two seemingly separate topics, and i think this will be useful in the essay. He spoke about how you can link fashion to the fast food industry, however loosely at first but you can link almost anything to anything if you do your research although some topics may be less connectable than others. It’s about us reinterpreting the world for people around us, as artists we are expected to think of as many new ways as possible for looking at things and explaining them and interpreting them. It sounds a bit pretentious but if artists hadn’t reinterpreted political themes into propaganda in the past, i doubt there would have been so many protests or uprisings or revolutions without visual language to make it understandable, spur people on and bring people together.

We have been told to look at creative process within our essay, how do i use my art to interpret an idea? What audience is it for? I would be a good idea to interview people when i have decided upon my topic to gain a variety of opinions that could influence and inform my own.

Look at in essay:

creative process

method

innovative approaches

business applications of your work

I think the business applications one is very important, because all in all, i want a job in the creative industry and working for myself sounds like a rewarding option which would give me creative control. But for this i need to know what i do, why i do it and who my work will appeal to. How does art become sellable? look into things like Etsy.com and Poundshop, places where you can sell your art.

We started to watch a video from Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts on the fashion department, but unfortunately that was when the screens went out.

What i can take from this lecture is a bit more information about the context of the essay, and thankfully a timeline of how it should go in terms of planning etc which makes me feel less worried because i can be more organised and plan my time effectively. Also i like the idea of linking two contrasting ideas to create an interesting dynamic.